Parole absconder gets 12 years for drive-thru lane robbery

A tattoo-laden former parole absconder received the expected 12-to-24 year prison term Tuesday for stabbing and robbing a woman while she sat in her vehicle in a McDonald’s drive-thru lane.

Roland L. Moore, 36, of Chesterfield Township, received the sentence from visiting Judge Antonio Viviano in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens.

Moore previously pleaded guilty to armed robbery and assault with intent to do great bodily harm for the incident Jan. 31, 2013, at the McDonald’s on 23 Mile Road in Chesterfield Township. He pleaded under a sentencing deal with Judge David Viviano.

The sentencing guideline range was 11-1/4 years to 37-1/2 years.

Moore, who has several other prior convictions, initially declined to speak but then asked Antonio Viviano, substituting for his son, to sentence him to a year below 12 to offset the time he has spent behind bars since his arrest. Viviano told him he could not receive the credit by law because he was on parole at the time of the offense.

“I can’t go under the guidelines,” Viviano replied. “You have a pretty bad record. I do have a duty to keep people from having their property stolen.”

A handful of females in Moore’s support attended the sentencing; they claimed he’s innocent but was forced to plead due to his criminal past.

“No way he did it,” said his sister, Bianca Moore.

“He was forced,” another supporter added.

Moore’s attorney, Rand Rodnick, said he could have deployed “some defenses” in a trial, but DNA testing that Moore demanded tilted against him. His DNA was found on the handle of his getaway bicycle and in blood on a shirt that he removed and left at a nearby apartment where he hid for a time before fleeing.

Moore entered the victim’s car through a window, and stabbed her in the hand and stole her laptop and a bag. He fled on a bicycle, which he left near the apartment complex. He was a fugitive until Feb. 3 when he was caught in Warren.

Witness statements and Moore’s cell phone activity also placed him at the scene.

Rodnick said he would have argued that Moore, who weighs more than 250 pounds, was too large and recovering from surgery to have performed the actions, and that he victim failed to notice his tattoos.

“She couldn’t miss them,” he said. “He’s got tattoos head to toe.”

Moore was released from prison and placed on parole in April 2011. In fall 2011, he violated an undisclosed Michigan Department of Corrections order, and state officials issued a warrant for his arrest and turned over his case to the absconder unit.